


Anchor

by wanderwings



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23450635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderwings/pseuds/wanderwings
Summary: During the aftermath of the war, Sakura and Sasuke share a quiet moment together.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 11
Kudos: 78





	Anchor

In the waning light of the afternoon sun while the skies bled into the orange hues of dusk, a pair of mismatched eyes stared into eyes the color of bottle green.

Uchiha Sasuke sat on a pile of rubble, oblivious to the sunset which he didn’t think he’d ever see again. In fact, nobody in that battlefield thought they would live to see another day, let alone the end of it.

Delicate hands held his cheeks, emitting a pale green glow that matched the eyes of the medic-nin hunched over him. Sasuke fought the insistent urge to close his eyes, to rest for just a bit, because he couldn’t bring himself to look away from her.

Haruno Sakura watched him, unwilling to speak a word and thus break the spell. They were so close that their breaths mingled, and to put words between them now was to carve more space, even more distance that they neither wanted nor needed.

Her green eyes bore into his red-and-purple gaze, analyzing the manifestation of two powerful eye techniques in a single man. Had she not been healing him, with the feel of his skin underneath her palms acting like an anchor to her, she would’ve gotten lost in the hypnotic turns of both the Sharingan and the Rinnegan. She shook her head as a throbbing ache bloomed in her temples. Now was not the time to lose her grip on herself.

Still, something nagged at the back of her mind. There was something terribly wrong with this picture.

Sasuke observed her sudden intake of breath as a shudder ran through her small frame and, reluctantly, she broke free from his gaze and shut her eyes. Her palms still glowed green against his cheeks as she channeled her chakra to his system, healing the shallow abrasions on his flesh and, as the chakra went deeper, all the broken pathways in his vision destroyed by using two eye techniques simultaneously. The war had taken its toll on him―in truth, he wasn’t as infinite in chakra as Naruto was, even if he wouldn’t ever admit it.

He was just a shinobi after all, albeit one born into the Uchiha.

In the end, he was still only just a boy who had grown up too soon.

Curiously, Sakura’s chakra didn’t feel too foreign to him. If he was to be honest, it felt comforting. He was exhausted, his chakra close to utter depletion. What was holding him together was just sheer willpower to not miss the sight of the medic-nin healing him.

After a while, Sakura opened her eyes and met his gaze once more. “These aren’t your eyes, Sasuke-kun,” she murmured quietly.

He froze instinctively, his eyebrows knitting together and his lips parting slightly. Whether in horror or in awe, he was not quite sure which.

She smiled sadly, the sunset casting shadows onto the planes of her face. Lifting his scarred hands, Sasuke traced the dark lines coursing from her yin seal and down her cheeks. He did not know what to say.

Amidst the roaring of the cheering crowd and the moaning of the wounded, there was a silence that opened up between them like a cave.

Finally, Sasuke spoke, “They were Itachi’s.”

It took everything in him to even speak his brother’s name. The wound in his heart was a gaping hole which he could never fill.

Sakura saw him tremble as he said his name, and she felt his pain reverberate in her ribcage like an aftershock. Her hands fell to his shoulders and she gently pulled him closer.

“I’m here,” she whispered into the crown of his head, wrapping her arms around him.

He buried his face into the crusted fabric of her flak jacket, fighting through the roaring wave of despair that threatened to engulf him. He held onto Sakura because she was the only one who kept him from completely drowning.

But then the waves crashed into him, driving him onto the rocky wall of a cliff over and over and over. All the while, Sakura held him, keeping him tethered and stubbornly refusing to let go.

When the turbulence had quieted down and he found the pain had ebbed somehow, Sasuke withdrew a little to look into her green eyes, finding them glistening with unshed tears. “Sakura,” he began, touching the lids of her eyes with his fingers. With her lids closed, the tears chased one after the other down her cheeks. “These may not be the same eyes, but I still see you,” he said softly.

Her eyelids flew open so fast that he had to remove his fingers hastily. Her lashes were damp with beads of salt which caught the sunlight, throwing small shards of rainbow that danced on her skin.

_What a beautiful sight._

“Sasuke-kun…?” Sakura voiced tentatively, her eyes wide with hope. “What do you―?”

She was interrupted by Sasuke reaching out and weaving his fingers with her own.

“Thank you for holding on.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this oneshot years back during the curious time when SS was not yet canon and we were all on our toes waiting for each manga update. Now that we have the new Uchiha family, it feels like such a privilege to have been with them along their journey. 
> 
> Hope you like it. <3
> 
> P.S. Sakura's flak jacket is here because I wrote this prior to the release of that unforgettable chapter 685, where much intense gazing happened. Also, obviously, this is different from what happened when the war actually ended, so please forgive. <3


End file.
